Defining Academic Regalia

Academic regalia are actually the term used in the United States for the academic dress that is the traditional clothing choice for tertiary education and sometimes for secondary education facilities. Generally this form of attire is only worn by those that have been accepted as students of a University or to individuals with a status that gives them an entitlement to the attire at the university. This form of clothing is also known as academicals and as academical dress. Sometimes you will hear the attire referred to as caps and gowns. 

A long time ago the academicals were worn on a daily basis by both the university students and the professors or educators of the campus. Today the only schools that still dress in this manner on a daily routine are the ancient universities. Most schools have begun to wear this sort of clothing only when they have formal ceremonies like graduations and commencement ceremonies. 

In the years that these garments were worn daily the majority of all schools and institutions wore the same outfit and not much has really changed today. The academicals will consist of an outer garment fashioned like a robe or a gown. This garment may open in the back, or it may open in the front, or it may be possible for the garment to merely be slipped over the head of the person. The individual wearing the robe will wear clothing beneath it. Most of the time the clothing worn under this piece of cloth will be clothing that would be considered dress outfits. Boys will usually wear a shirt and a tie with some type of dress slacks and girls will usually wear a dress or a skirt beneath their robes. These clothing underneath the gown would be of the same type an individual would don to go to church, a wedding, or a funeral. 

To go with the gown will be a head piece that matches the other piece of the academicals. The head piece can be graduation hoods, or it can be a tam, or maybe a bonnet and it may be the mortarboard cap that is so familiar in the United States. 

The academic dress that is commonly worn by students in the United States and scholars in the British Commonwealth are based on the academic dress that was a part of Oxford and Cambridge universities. Oxford and Cambridge had copied this form of dress from the medieval universities that were located in Europe. The major difference between the clothing worn at Oxford and Cambridge and what is popularly worn in the United States is that at the learned institutions there is a prescribed set of dress known as a subfusc that is to be worn under the robes. 

For the most part everyone accepts the fact that wearing casual attire under these prestigious garments is unacceptable. There are some institutions that have had to bar individuals from proceeding with their ceremonies because of the garments they selected. Generally this had something to do with the outerwear and not with the pieces that cannot really be seen.